The LEGO Group has unveiled 11382 Hubble Space Telescope, which celebrates the significance of the world’s most famous telescope.
Launching on August 1, LEGO Icons 11382 Hubble Space Telescope is made from 1,252 pieces and will be priced at £119.99 / $139.99 / €129.99.
It builds a detailed model of the famous telescope that has helped shaped scientific understanding of the cosmos and its galaxies. Removing the exterior panels reveals the detailed instrument bay, which features gyroscopes, the primary mirrors and the secondary mirrors. Each solar array and antenna can be rotated into position, while the aperture door can be opened to place Hubble on its stand for display.
11382 Hubble Space Telescope also comes with an exclusive astronaut minifigure that conveys the scale of the finished model.
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NASA built the Hubble Space Telescope in the 1970s in collaboration with with the European Space Agency. Launched into space on April 24, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope obtains high-resolution images and spectroscopic data from across the cosmos while orbiting approximately 300 miles above the Earth’s surface.
It captures data on solar system, the Milky Way and early universes beginning to form. For decades it was the only telescope able to provide imaging at infrared, ultraviolet and near-infrared wavelengths. The James Webb Space Telescope launched in 2021, joining Hubble to help scientists understand astronomy in even greater depth.
Hubble features a huge mirror, more than seven feet in diameter, to observe different wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. It has helped to answer key astronomical questions, including providing evidence about determining the rate of expansion of the universe. It has also discovered black holes in the centre of far away galaxies and the supernovas of stars – an explosion of light when a star dies. More recently, it has helped map out the Andromeda Galaxy, the closest to our own, with the images obtained over three years capturing more than two hundred million stars.
These discoveries continue, as Hubble is designed to be maintained in space by astronauts. These missions are called Five Space Shuttle repairs, which upgrade and replace systems in the telescope, including the five main instruments that give the mission its name.
The technological marvel has completed over 35 years in operation and is predicted to continue running until sometime in the 2030s. Currently, Hubble has produced more than 1.7 million observations, which have led to thousands of research articles published.
11382 Hubble Space Telescope will join the array of LEGO NASA sets that have captured some of the greatest moments in space exploration, from 92176 Apollo Saturn V Rocket to 10341 Artemis Space Launch System (featured on the cover of Blocks Issue 116). If you’re looking for a small telescope to marvel at the wonders of the universe in the meantime then 31378 Space Exploration Telescope is available now.
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